Prayers for Uvalde
The tragic events in Uvalde, TX have us reeling again: another mass shooting, a whole community suffering. We grieve with and pray for the families who have suffered traumatic loss. We all feel a certain amount of helplessness. What can be done to stop this?
Certainly there will be renewed debate about gun control. There will no doubt be review of the perpetrator’s mental health and probably his family background and drug use, if any. Effort will be made to pin blame somewhere. But there’s a good chance, the research will deal with symptoms rather than the systemic problem our country faces.
We are bringing up generations of young people with little or no regard for human life. And why is that? Respect for life is a cornerstone of civilized society and it is moored in morality.
For decades those demanding separation of church and state have driven God from our schools. And with God goes morality. If there is no divine accountability, there is no need for morality. Morality is nothing more than a recommended option rather than a necessity for existence. In this way, our schools are failing our kids. There are many good people trying to make a difference in the school system and we are grateful for every one of them. But systemically, our schools have failed our kids and many of our homes have done no better.
There is hope but only if we reintroduce morality alongside mathematics and we let our children hear that there is human accountability to a divine being. Change can come but only if we reintroduce God.
Read MoreProp 207
Update: unfortunately Prop 207 passed in 2020.
Bad for AZ families.
Bad for AZ freeways.
Bad for AZ future.
Find out some of the leading reasons in this video. . .
Read MoreA House for Me
from Series: Prayer Points on Property
Moses built the Lord a house; we call it the tabernacle. Solomon built Him a house and we call it the temple.
Acts 7:48 Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
Why are men so set on building God a house, when He doesn’t even dwell there? The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that God fills heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24). We don’t need a house to place God for He is everywhere. And if He wanted a house, He could build one much more majestic than we.
But there remains a need for a house, not for God’s benefit but for ours. We need a place where we can pray and worship and meet with others who wish to do the same. We need a place to remind us that the God who is everywhere is also right here. We need a place to display His fame and to invite others to call upon His name. To these ends then, let us pray for a house for the Lord.
Read MoreLike a Dream
from Series: Prayer Points on Property
KJV Psalm 126:1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
It must have seemed like a dream when a new leader rose to power and told the Jews they could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. It had to be stunning; the Jews must have shaken their heads in disbelief that after 70 long years they were actually going home; that they actually had a home. But God had done the impossible. He had turned a dream into reality so much so that the Jews were laughing (v. 2) and singing God’s praise because He had done great things for them (v. 3).
Does it seem like a dream, like a long shot, for our church to have its own place? Believe the Lord can “turn again” for us. If He could bring the Jews into favor with a new leader, then He can bring our church into favor with this landlord. Then we will be like them, laughing in wonder at the God who still does impossible things for His people.
Read MoreChanged by the Virus?
“Unanticipated, Unprecendented, Unsettling”
These are just a few of the adjectives people use to describe the times in which we live. There is hardly a way in which our lives have not been touched by the virus:
from the way we buy groceries, to the way we do school, to the way we worship.
No doubt, you have reached out to God many times in prayer for protection for your family and the community from this spreading virus. At the same time, you may feel your connection to God slipping due to your distance from worship. So I have a question for you.
How has the virus changed how you relate to God?
Please share your comments below.
Read MoreUnsettled Places
A man needs a home so he can hang his hat; a woman needs a home so she can roost and redecorate. How men and women come at things from opposite directions! But all of us know the value of a place to call home, a place to call our own. But sometimes, God allows us to go through seasons of unsettledness.
For forty years, the Israelites were unsettled. Here one day, packing up and moving on the next. When the cloud moved, so did they. And each new place brought a new adventure: a shortage of water, a lack of meat, a disruption of some kind. And according to God this was all part of the plan. He took them places to teach them lessons.
KJV Deuteronomy 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.
If you study the text carefully, you will see that God gave them manna not just to feed them but to teach them. He wanted them to understand that there was more to life than eating bread. As they opened their mouths, they were to remember the words of His mouth.
Does it seem like God has always got you on a new adventure? Here one day, and a new challenge the next? Why are we surprised? That same God is leading us. And a shortage of bread or water (or toilet paper) might just be another lesson, a lesson on how much you need God just to live!
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